Thought experiment

[mme_hardy]

What if people who signed opt-out forms for their children's vaccinations had to accept consequences?

"I agree that if there is an outbreak of vaccine-controllable infectious diseases in the area, my child will be forbidden to attend school until the outbreak passes. I agree that if anyone in my household contracts a vaccine-controllable disease, my household will be quarantined until risk of contagion is past. "Quarantine" means that no member of the household will be allowed to leave the house except for a medical emergency, and that nobody outside the household will be permitted to come within contagion distance of the house."

Comments

[adrian_turtle]

There has been a lot of work at the state and county level to reduce access barriers to vaccination. Especially for kids. Parents have to take their kids to a health care provider anyhow, (because schools require a physical exam before registration, in the states I know of), and then they can either get them vaccinated or fill out a form saying they have religious/philosophical objections to vaccination. The vaccination doesn't cost any money, with Obamacare. And they don't need to make another trip.

I know a few people can fall through the cracks of any system. But I'd be really surprised if there were huge numbers of families who had trouble accessing basic vaccines for their kids. Not compared to the 5% of religious/philosophical opt-outs in California private kindergartens.

[mme_hardy]

Doctors' hours are still a very big barrier to vaccination. For many people, leaving work, travelling to a doctor, and travelling back are enormous barriers. Given the details of a particular family's Obamacare insurance, the deductibles on a doctor's visit may still be an enormous financial hit for the household.

[vom_marlowe]

Fortunately, there's lots of alternate options for some of this, like the CVS clinics and various free county clinics (some of which travel in buses even). The schools near me, in the inner city, all required the vaccination paperwork, and included options nearby, usually including some free option or very low cost (like, twenty dollars, rather than 100+).

[mme_hardy]

That is really awesome, and should be standard everywhere.

[adrian_turtle]

It this just Massachusetts? A year or two ago they stopped having co-pays on vaccinations, and I thought it was because of a generally obamacare requirement.

[mme_hardy]

The last time I had to deal with this was 20 years ago, so who knows. Back then, the vaccination itself was paid for by the government, but the doctor's visit surrounding the vaccinations was not. I had excellent insurance, so I was fine.

See above re: 20 years ago.

[laurashapiro]

I'm certainly not an expert in the field, but the article refers to a 2013 CDC study as follows:

The study found that an astonishing 49 percent of toddlers born from 2004 through 2008 hadn't had all their shots by their second birthday, but only about 2 percent had parents who refused to have them vaccinated. They were missing shots for pretty mundane reasons—parents' work schedules, transportation problems, insurance hiccups. An earlier CDC study concluded that children in poor communities were more likely to miss their shots than those in wealthier neighborhoods...

I don't have kids, but it's a pain in the ass for me to get a flu shot every year because my HMO only doles them out during work hours.